Greek Salmon Salad

June 24, 2014

eek! This salad makes me so happy.

I have been vacationing the past few weekends in New Orleans and Okoboji Iowa. I hope to share photos with you from New Orleans soon – what an amazing place! I was in Okoboji celebrating one of my best friend’s bachelorette parties. Okoboji Iowa is a lake town in the Northwest corner of Iowa. It’s.so.much.fun. We had a blast celebrating my friend Beth, hanging in the sun, and drinking cold beers. That’s the life people.

When I’m on vacation I often indulge. I want to try the best known foods and restaurants and I won’t stop until I’m satisfied. That’s one of my favorite parts about vacationing, eating and trying delicious cuisines that I’ve never tried before. With that comes a lot of fried foods, desserts, heavy meals, booze, and the list goes on.

This brings me to this Greek Salmon Salad. I often make salads on Mondays because it’s after the weekend which usually consists of wine, going out to dinner, and dessert.

Greek Salmon Salad might be one of my favorite salads right now. It’s refreshing, light, flavorful, and simply different from some of the usual salads I eat which consist of chicken and a lot of goat cheese. I heart goat cheese.

The flavaaas in this salad are ridiculous. I added the typical Greek ingredients like feta cheese, tomatoes, and cucumbers, but added some not so typical ingredients like fennel and dill. It.was.sooooo.good! Dill is awesome and it pairs so well with salmon. I grilled the salmon and got nice, crusty grill marks on it then lightly shredded it. Grilling it brought a smoky burnt flavor to the salad which complimented all of the salty and refreshing flavors of lemon, feta, and dill. THIS is the summer salad my friends.

1 lemon (you will use the juice from the lemon for the marinade and for the dressing)

1 tomato, chopped

½ of cucumber, chopped

¼ cup chopped fennel (optional and can substitute red onion instead)

Feta cheese

Dressing

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice from your lemon

1 ½ teaspoon granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

Instructions

Turn your grill on medium-high heat. In a bowl add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper. Add the salmon filet to the bowl turning a few times so the salmon is completely covered with the marinade. Spray grill with non-stick spray. Grill salmon on both sides for about 6-8 minutes (the amount of time will depend on how thick the salmon is, mine was pretty thick about 1 ½ inches). The salmon should have grill marks and be cooked all the way through, set aside to cool then shred lightly with a fork.

To make the dressing, add all of the ingredients to a bowl and whisk. Prepare the salad and pour the dressing over top. Garnish with chopped dill if desired.

Notes

Optional: If you are using fennel add it to a bowl with a little salt and 3 dashes of red wine vinegar. Let it sit for about 10 minutes then pat dry with a paper towel. This lightly pickles the fennel which adds extra flavor.